Read Frame Type Film: Book Review. By Josiah Teal.

The Bell curve of film books ranges from fun plot-summary listicles to dense hyper-niche deep dives, with plenty of critic pieces and biographies in between. This opening statement is not to discredit any books but to convey the many audiences and possible prerequisites before diving into film as a literary sub-genre. “Read Frame Type Film” is firmly in the hyper-niche deep dive category.

Written by Enrico Camporesi, Catherine de Smet, and Philippe Millo, “Read Frame Type Film” is an analysis of text in cinema: print, cursive, different fonts, lettering, subtitles, and coloring-if its letters on the screen- “Read Frame Type Film” has an in-depth examination of it. 

“Read Frame Type Film” is academic, made for a film school audience already christened with more knowledge of film than the average cinephile. The work includes references to David Lynch, Jean-Luc Godard, and even Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” all centered on the words and how different auteurs present them on the silver screen.

The names above include some of the more household names within the book, as the bulk of the text dives into 24 films that would make even the most seasoned film historians proud. Avant Garde and psychedelic films offer some of the best insights as the authors discuss how these films present text in an artistic format and heighten the audience’s emotional response. 

Stylistically, “Read Frame Type Film” is primed for dissertations and thesis papers and is armed with plenty of great quotes to connect main ideas across academia. It’s a curriculum book with plenty of excerpts for film schools to review and grad students to mine for content. Within the film industry, up-and-coming filmmakers could find parts of the book helpful in finding the perfect way to present text or subtitles for their indie films.

However, for the general public or even a regular moviegoer, there are far more accessible books on film. Even veteran cinephiles may appreciate “Read Frame Type Film” but find the book too dense. Density aside, the analysis is first-class and offers plenty of insight into an often-overlooked aspect of the cinematic experience. 

The depths of cinema continue to grow with the medium. From synching up The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd to watching only the Ingrid Berman shots of Casablanca or attending midnight screenings of Rocky Horror while knowing all the inside jokes, cinema expands with its audience. Camporesi, de Smet, and Millo represent the depths and expansion of cinema with “Read Frame Type Film.” The audience and subject are beyond niche.

The text is a slow-read, not for the binge-read BookTok era. But for its intended audience, “Read Frame Type Film” displays the passion beyond the hyper-niche, displaying cinema to the fullest extent of the film spectrum and representing the furthest end of the academic bell curve, seeking to champion film culture in every word, both on screen and on the page. 

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